Director of HR

The role combines strategic and operational leadership. The Director of HR will be responsible for:

• Developing and delivering the NIBRT People Strategy, embedded within NIBRT’s wider organisational strategy and business goals.
• Leading organisational development and transformation, and building a high-performing, inclusive and engaged workplace.
• Leading the delivery of high-quality, compliant and responsive HR services across the full employee lifecycle.
• Acting as a trusted adviser to the CEO, SLT, Board and people managers on people risk, opportunity and best practice.
• Maintaining a visible HR presence and a people-centred focus across the organisation.

DIRECT REPORTS

• Currently a team of two direct reports:
  • HR Manager
  • HR Generalist / Administrator

KEY DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

People Strategy & Governance

• Develop and deliver the NIBRT People Strategy, ensuring it is aligned with NIBRT’s overall strategy and business goals.
• Represent the people agenda in strategic planning and at SLT meetings.
• Advise the CEO, senior leadership and the Board on people risk and opportunity, including workforce, culture, compliance and reputational issues.
• Set annual HR objectives and report on progress to the CEO, SLT and Board.

Talent, Workforce & Organisation Design

• Lead workforce planning and talent strategy for NIBRT, so the Institute can attract, develop and retain the skills it needs now and in the future.
  • Support the talent strategy for NIBRT joint appointments with universities and research centres/consortia in which NIBRT is a partner (e.g. RINN Centres).
• Lead organisational design and development, making sure structures, roles and ways of working support NIBRT’s strategy.

Leadership Capability & Development

• Lead on leadership development and succession planning for senior and business-critical roles by:
  • Ensuring NIBRT has a suitable leadership development platform in place, supported by the right policies.
  • Ensuring NIBRT has the capability to deliver executive coaching and mentorship to high-potential future leaders.
  • Developing a diverse leadership succession pipeline, including in terms of gender, background and culture.

Culture & Values

• Lead and facilitate the development of NIBRT’s culture and values, working closely with the CEO, SLT and Marketing / Communications team.
• Create more effective channels to ensure that the employee voice features strongly in NIBRT’s culture and values.
• Lead the continuous improvement of NIBRT’s employee value proposition (#LifeAtNIBRT) and how it is communicated externally.

Reward & People Insight

• Lead the evolution of NIBRT’s reward and recognition strategy, ensuring it is appropriately structured, competitive, affordable, compliant and externally benchmarked.
• Develop HR analytics and people data insights to inform decision-making by SLT and the Board.

OPERATIONAL LEADERSHIP

HR Operations & Reporting

• Lead and develop the HR team.
• Manage / oversee the annual HR budget.
• Provide regular HR reporting to people managers, SLT and the Board.
• Ensure HR policies, procedures and records are current, consistently applied and compliant with statutory people-related obligations (e.g. gender pay gap and pay transparency reporting, employment permits and data protection for employee data).
• Lead the continuous improvement of the organisation’s HR management systems (HRIS).

Talent Acquisition

• Oversee recruitment and selection processes, ensuring they are fair, efficient, consistent and compliant, while meeting NIBRT’s needs.
• Oversee the recruitment and contracting processes for NIBRT’s more complex employment scenarios, including joint appointments of senior researchers, global relocation and international hybrid working.
• Oversee internal and external communications for new roles, working with the Marketing / Communications team and the third-party recruitment agency.

Employee Relations

• Oversee the management of employee relations, including grievances, disciplinaries and performance issues, in line with Irish employment law and NIBRT policy.
• Coordinate the provision of advice and coaching to managers on people issues and best practice.
• Support organisational change, including restructures and role changes, making sure it is managed fairly, lawfully and with clear communication.

Staff Learning & Development

• Oversee and coordinate staff learning and development activity, with a particular focus on NIBRT’s future skills needs.
• Oversee and coordinate induction training for all new staff, covering key policies and procedures.
• Support line managers in the development of career frameworks, progression pathways and succession planning for key roles in their teams.
• Own the tracking processes for staff learning and development, and for performance management.

Engagement, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

• Oversee employee engagement initiatives and act on the findings of engagement surveys.
• Oversee EDI implementation, building on NIBRT’s Investors in Diversity and HR Excellence in Research commitments.

Key Performance Indicators

• Delivery of the annual People Strategy objectives agreed with the CEO and Board.
• Talent attraction and retention metrics, including time-to-hire, quality of hire, voluntary turnover and retention of key talent.
• Employee engagement scores and progress on engagement action plans.
• Succession coverage for senior and business-critical roles.
• Progress against EDI goals and maintenance of external HR quality accreditations.
• Timely and fair resolution of employee relations cases; compliance with employment law.
• Quality and timeliness of HR reporting to SLT and the Board.